Raf Simons AW 1997/1998

When it comes to shows that both define and are defined by youth culture, it’s not easy to pick just one from Raf Simons, the designer who cemented the idea that fashion is most exciting when it’s in dialogue with other cultural disciplines, especially music.

The seeds for those shows were planted in Simons’ Fall/Winter 1998 debut. That collection was the bridge between the menswear of the 1990s and that of the next decade. You could say that every other menswear collection for the next 10 years was a footnote to this one, and you wouldn’t be far off the mark.